Several Notions: 1-12
by hophophop
Summary: A story of the first 12 episodes, told in 100-word scenes. One per episode, with one bonus entry. I plan to continue, but sections 13-24 will be posted in a new entry at the end of the season and linked here. Posted in-progress starting 2013-01-20, completed 2013-01-25.


_"There's a story here, Watson, and we can help tell it."_

* * *

**1. Pilot**  
Watson used alarm clocks for insurance, not necessity. She often woke up before the alarm, before sunrise, even, if the room's windows faced east. (These faced south.) But the first night in a new place frequently meant uneasy rest, just getting used to the sounds and smells and peculiarities of the room, not to mention the stresses and strains of the first day of companionship. Setting the alarm helped her sleep soundly; otherwise she might wake hourly to check the time. Holmes's deductions were impressive, but his batting average concerning her current and former employment left some room for improvement.

**2. While You Were Sleeping**  
He could admit (to himself, of course, not to her) that having a housemate was not the catastrophe he had expected it to be. She made passable coffee and tea, and she took care of dinner, saving him trouble and wasted time. She insisted on perpetuating the charade of addiction counseling, but otherwise kept small talk to a minimum. When they weren't discussing a case or slogging through some idiotic sobriety lesson, she tended to silence when she was in the house. The one exception was baseball, but the season was finally over, and she'd be gone before the next.

_2. While You Were Sleeping (bonus)  
Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala. Amigdala._

**3. Child Predator**  
Angus's porcelain neck was too small to fit neatly into his hand, but the balance between head and base made him easy to hold with two fingers despite his weight of 683 grams. Holmes needed to gesture with Angus in order to fully engage with him as a listener, which, in retrospect, he recognized as simply a means to animate the inanimate. There was no question that Angus was better than no audience at all but an autonomous listener who could not only gesture herself, as it were, but also occasionally surprise him, produced far superior results in his deductions.

**4. The Rat Race**  
The first acknowledgement that he recognizes what she does is the look he gives her after saying he hoped she knew he was in trouble. He holds her gaze just a heartbeat too long, enough to confirm that her worries had been reasonable. The second acknowledgement is his resigned acceptance of her decision to break confidentiality to request Gregson's help. Both reactions are unprecedented and unexpected in their short time together. But it is the third, his invitation and simultaneous caution about the addictive nature of finding the puzzle in everything, that ultimately means more to her than any thanks.

**5. Lesser Evils**  
He'd hypnotized himself to pass the time waiting for Watson to return, slipping lightly out of trance when she finally arrived. He was eager to retrace the steps of his latest deduction with her, but when she said she'd been to the hospital, he was intrigued. Her affect indicated disappointment, which, he observed, disappointed him. He wanted her to be vindicated, and not only because he had encouraged her to follow up. But there was nothing he could do, so he offered the only thing he had: the file that led him to another doctor who didn't stay a doctor.

**6. Flight Risk**  
Watson loved bookstores and browsed in them often, though these days she rarely bought print any more. E-books just made more sense given how often she moved. She almost hoped she wouldn't find the actor there, so she could wander the aisles instead of pursuing a story she wasn't sure how to weild. When Alistair gave her the name, she knew it was something volatile, dangerous; something Holmes might even perceive as a weapon. But it wasn't until she saw the look on his face after she said it that she realized she had just stabbed him in the gut.

**7. One Way to Get Off**  
The blender was still out on the counter the next morning, full of day-old smoothie and partly ground correspondence. She didn't know if Holmes was avoiding the kitchen or intentionally holding her breakfast hostage. She supposed she should be grateful he hadn't thrown the whole thing out (or through) the window. But she was hungry now, so she poured the liquid down the drain and gently placed the remaining soggy mass on a plate by the stove. Seemed disrespectful to dump it in the trash; that was his call. By the time she came back from jogging, it was gone.

**8. The Long Fuse**  
Of all the unlikely, bizarre, or highly specific things she's heard him say, why does it have to be this idiotic phrase she can't get out of her head? She's never watched the program and yet she knows exactly what he had remembered seeing on the screen. Maybe he had a suggestion for how to remove natterings he couldn't avoid ingesting. He must; otherwise how could he reconcile the "method of loci" practice, filling his brain with random chatter every morning to exercise recall, with his stupid attic theory? She was starting to get a headache. Yellow cartoon sponge man.

**9. You Do It To Yourself**  
This reluctance to reenter rehab, as it were, was irrational. Holmes had been restless all evening and decided to walk over to meet Watson at the clinic. It was clear from her terse message that he was not expected, but if things went as he predicted they would, he could try to distract her from the sense of failure he suspected she might indulge. That the outcome of the case this afternoon was yet another reminder of his own past failures was irrelevant, of course. He paced outside on 59th for several minutes before pushing through the clinic's double doors.

**10. The Leviathan**  
He was manic the first time he touched Watson while she slept. Utterly stymied by the vault, he was getting more obsessed as progress eluded him. He tried engaging with it as with Angus, talking to "her" to determine how the thieves succeeded. In the end, as he said, he preferred Watson. Keeping quiet while she slept proved equally ineffective so his hand shot out to grab her shoulder. He was more forceful than he anticipated but then she was awake and engaged and gave him the tip he needed to attack the problem in a most satisfyingly direct fashion.

**11. Dirty Laundry**  
Holmes stared at the card. Watson's thumb obscured his view of the woman's name but he could discern the last four digits of her number and enough of the third to know it was 1, 4, or 7. Watson watched the woman walk away, trying to imagine what it would feel like to express an interest (professional or not) in a manner so direct and forthcoming without an edge of desperation. They made eye contact briefly, appraising, and looked away. Watson stared at the card. Holmes gazed ahead, calculating the permutations required to generate a list of possible phone numbers.

**12. M**  
Holmes stared at the bees. Watson's conversation made it difficult to hear the sound of the colony but he was familiar enough with their behaviour now to know what he was missing. Watson watched him watch the bees, trying to imagine what it would feel like to say she wanted to continue working with him after the contract was over without an edge of misgiving. They made eye contact through the glass walls of the hive, bees intent and oblivious to their gaze. Holmes railed against his father's indifference. Watson looked away, anxious about how the next days would go.


End file.
